Alaya was the granddaughter of the Lawgiver of Mak, and his heir as leader of the city.

Along with her human friend Sully, Alaya lost both of her parents as a child during the Eastern Campaigns, when the mixed ape/human settlement of Red Creek was attacked by exclusively human army of Delphi. Both children were rescued by the albino gorilla General Nix, and were adopted by the Lawgiver of Mak.

Twenty three years Alaya held the position of "Council Voice" in the in "City Tree" - the city assembly. She was present when the Lawgiver was murdered by a disguised human assassin. His dying words to her were of fear for the future of apes and humans. After the Lawgiver's death, Alaya's only concern was to bring vengeance for his murder. She gave Sully - by then the unofficial leader of the human community - notice that she would turn the human Southtown district inside-out to find the assassin, and duly cleared the area, sending captured humans to concentration camps. She also abducted and adopted Sully's newly born baby Julian.

Sully spent ten years leading the exiled human refugees and arming them, after which she attacked Mak in order to regain control. The attack coincided with a coup d'etat against Alaya by Nerise, manipulated by the telepathic human Brother Kale. Alaya was jailed while competing ape factions tore the city apart, but was freed as the ape factions and Sully's humans joined forces to defend Mak from the huge invading army of The Golden. Almost everyone in Mak was killed in the battle and the subsequent nuclear explosion that destroyed the city, with Julian and Hulss escaping.

In the flashbacks to the massacre at Red Creek, Alaya's father was referred to as the son of the Lawgiver, but as both Alaya and her father were chimps and the Lawgiver of Mak was an orangutan, this may have referred to another Lawgiver, or perhaps Alaya's father had also been adopted by the Lawgiver of Mak.